Atmospheric wins 2016 Wilderness Society Award

Atmospheric has won the Wilderness Society Environment Award for Children’s Literature Award in the non-fiction category, and I am thrilled.

It was awarded yesterday, on the last day of the Melbourne Writers Festival.

Atmospheric: the burning story of climate change was a book I felt I had to write.

I am sure that climate change is a huge threat to the planet and to us. I thought I had to do something other than shout at politicians on the TV. So I joined a climate action group. We’ve been lobbying governments and electricity generators for seven years to make the transition from coal and gas generated energy to renewable energy. They are only interested in making money.

Celebrating with my grandson

As I’m a children’s author, I decided there was something else I could do — write a book that explains how climate change works. If the people currently in power refuse to listen, then it’s up to the next generation to fix the mistakes we’ve made.

So I wrote a history of climate change, and also the history of the amazing scientists and thinkers who over a period of 200 years have figured out how it works, how humans have contributed to it, what will happen if we don’t fix it soon. I wanted to give young people the knowledge and the confidence, so that they can cut through the misinformation, work out what has to be done. And do it.